As a mode of using a plastic optical fiber, Patent Document 1 discloses an optical fiber cable having the structure shown in FIG. 4. In this optical fiber cable, a plastic optical fiber 51 is covered with a reinforcing layer 52 and further covered with a resin layer 53 such as a color coat layer to form a plastic optical fiber 54, four of which are arranged in parallel to have a collective coating 55 applied to form an optical fiber ribbon 56 and further covered with an outermost covering layer 57.
In order to improve the strength of the optical fiber cable, it is described that a reinforcing material such as a tension member (not shown) may be contained in the outermost covering layer 57.
When connecting such an optical fiber cable to an equipment, etc., it is necessary to remove the outermost covering layer 57 at the tip portion to take out the optical fiber ribbon 56 and the tension member, respectively, and then to connect and fix the optical fiber ribbon 56 to the equipment, etc. and at the same time to fix the tension member to an appropriate part.